I think it's fairly clear that the Iraq war was about securing access to oil supplies (both existing and new), and securing a new strategic blocking position in the gulf as the military presence in Saudi Arabia was becoming unwelcome, and the country looking a lot less stable.
The blocking aspects probably included shutting down Saddam Hussein (as a threat or despot, a very minor consideration - but heaven sent as a PR justification), positioning to counter the growth of Iranian power, blocking Russian and Chinese access, and covering possible developments between India, Pakistan and China over Kashmir.
It seems quite likely that the public perception of the Iraqi regime and 9-11 were massaged/brought about to create the required public support for the invasion, along with hyping the terrorist threat to justify the 'war on terror'
which among other things enabled the move into Afghanistan.
This whole struggle for dominance between the superpowers across the crescent that starts in Syria, and proceeds through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir and Tibet to China, and for control of access to oil and the Gulf has been going since the 1800s when it was known as 'The Great Game'.
This is why China is intent on maintaining a strong presence in Tibet. Even the recent events in Georgia where the Russians called NATO's bluff were probably a part of this.
A really good and informative read on the history of this struggle and the current scenario across all of this territory is 'War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet', by Eric Margolis:
http://www.amazon.com/War-Top-World-Struggle-Afghanistan/dp/0415934680/ref=sr_1_...Once you've read this you'll never look at any of these issues in the same light again. Notice how it is that pretty much all of the countries in this crescent have been labelled as a threat to enable invasion, or have had internal wars kicked off by externally supported internal groups, or are regarded as disputed territory.
The pity of it all is that it's the ordinary people on both sides that always suffer in this sort of scene, while the big guys at the top play games....